East Coker

East Coker is the name of a village in Somerset, England where some of Eliot’s ancestors lived before emigrating to America. After he passed away, his ashes were interred at St. Michael’s Church in the town.

The second of Eliot’s Four Quartets, East Coker was written in early 1940, and first appeared in a Supplement to the New English Weekly on 21 March 1940. It was first published as an independent work in September 1940.